China is going to get coal from somewhere, so if we won't ship ours to them they will turn to "dirtier" coal from elsewhere. We lose the much-needed commerce and the world gets worse air pollution.

As an aside to that, the environmental impact statement process was developed to provide educated and unbiased assessments of given activities. It was not meant to be a tool to be manipulated by the obstructionists to further their agendas. Tagging on "end use" impacts to a study adds a silly and inappropriate string of "what ifs" to the study of any proposed activity.

BOB CUMMINGS, West Richland

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